Talk:Malzahar/@comment-24823977-20140522143923/@comment-8442244-20140604182750
EDIT: Warning! Veery long text below. After I posted it I was horrified of how much I wrote. :D Even though it's been a whiled I played Malzahar, I build him something like this. I start with Doran's Ring and health potions like 99% of games. It is such a good item on Malz, as after poking/farming with Q (farming might not be as good idea) at lvl 1, you take E on lvl 2 and get your mana back with Doran's Ring and E. Little tip; try to poke minions first a bit with autoattacks because E at early levels deals too low dmg, so you might end up with "vasting" your E, and what's worse Mana on E, because it ends before minion dies. So I usually aa minions a bit BEFORE I use E on them or I just use E on minion that your minions are attacking. You got back like this a lot of Mana and with good mana management I rarely find myself out of mana even without Chalice/Athene's or more then one Doran's Ring. Then on my first back I usualy buy Catalys the Protector or if I'm stomping enemy's midlaner I just buy Needlessly Large Rod and rush Death Fire Grasp. If I'm stomping midlane(or other lanes when/if roaming) even when jungler comes I might just skip Rod of Ages and buy more AP based items. If I'm not doing so well or I just don't stomp the mid, I buy mostly Rod of Ages first, as the sooner you buy it, the more effective will it's stacks be for you(because when you get +200 hp when you have like 1000 HP, it will give you effectively more then when you have 2000 HP and still got +200 HP). Then next item is Death Fire Grasp as with it's high AP stat and active part it will give you HIGH burst potential. I always want to rush Needlessly Large Rod as first part of DFG because it give you great amount of AP which is always good. After DFG I take Rabadon's Deathcap. Thanks it it's passive that give you 30% of your total AP and bonus AP it is great item for any AP champion and it is especially good as normally you have already a lot of AP from ROA and DFG + your ROA is probably stacking still so you get from your stacks even more AP. After Rabadon I take Void Staff. If is wonderfull item for nuking even if your opponents don't stack MR yet. You can take Void Staff before Rabadons in case you are super adead and want more nuke power. Somewhere in process of building buy your boots. It is discutable and almost impossible to say where in process they fir best, as it is mostly based on how much do you need mobility. You should buy they after those item though if you don't have them yet. And I recommend Sorcerer's Boots. If you don't need Homeguard I recommend Captain as it's bonus movement spped for minions affects your Voidlings too. Last item should be more deffensive of purely deffensive. Partly deffensive: Zhonya's Hourglass are good if your enemies team is purely AD or their ADC is far ahead or at least highest threat. Or when you just want to get a lot of AP and armor + awesome active as bonus. Against AP heavy team are good choises Athene's Unholy Grail or Abyssal Scepter, but many people believe, you shouldn't be taking Abyssal Scepter, while you have Void Staff. Rayali's Scepter is good choise if you want more HP, aka taking a lot of mixed damage and still want that extra AP. Purely deffensive: Practicaly only choises are Guardian Angel or Banshee's Veil. I myself don't build Athene's nor more Doran's Rings as I mention before, I don't really need more mana regen and Athene's has too low AP so I don't like it much. Will of the Ancients is nice item, and people actually use it on Malzahar as you will be able to gain nice chunk of HP back with your E after one wave. But I don't build it because I don't have free item slot for it. Other items I mentioned have a lot more usage on my playstyle's Malzahar nuker. I don't like Lindary's Torment on Malzahar as I don't need to poke people to death but nuke them to death. :) Morellonomicon is actually very decent item, as it gives you chunk of CDR and nice amount of AP. But as with WOTA I wouldn't build it, because there are more powerfull options. I would take this item if I would need it's passive, as it is very usefull when you want to nuke Volibear with his pesky passive or Aatrox with his passive, as when you apply Grevious Wound(or Ignite) before he starts to healing it will reduce the amount of HP he will get back. Or just when there is Draven with 5 Blood Thisters against you. Idk but what item would I replace it with, but I would probably take it as 6th item if I wouldn't need extra deffense or instead of boots, if I don't need mobility and my team peels super good for me, but then you would have rpoblem to get to people close and quickly enough, or instead of Void Staff. If you skiped building Rod of Ages, you have free item slot and you are free to build it. ;) Archangel Staff is very good item and can be your 6th item. It actually works pretty good with Rabadon's Deathcap as it gives you a LOT of AP from Spheraph Embrance's passive, especially when you build Rod of Ages too, as ROA gives you another 650 mana. But you might hare to problem to stack up Tear before the game ends, but with literally spamming Q and W, it is possible to do it. But for this to do, you have to buy Tear as one of the first items and you lose a bit of power as it will take longer to build other AP items. If you don't like Rod of Ages and want 6th item to be deffensive, you are free to buy Tear instead of Catalys the Protector. This is my list of items I buy on this awesome nuker. :)